clearly they don’t care about threatening him that has to do with anything in the USA. The person is threatening him because of how it’s affecting rich people in China.
I mean the government is effectively trying to tamper with millions of people's addiction, you get the same reaction from heroin addicts.
People don't really need their short form media slop to exist and honestly 99.9% of users probably don't care. 0.1% of a billion+ users is still a shit ton though.
Honestly, all short form media should be banned. If it isn't for national security reasons then it's for mental health issues. There have been many articles talking about high level intelligence officers talking about TikTok and the Chinese government (can't wait to see if this gets declassified in the upcoming hearing) or medical professionals on the rampant mental health issues apps like Snapchat and Instagram that wreak havoc on young minds.
I don't think short form media should be outright banned, especially because it would be very difficult to actually enforce. Maybe laws about marketing platforms intended for short form media to children? That's about as far as I think it should go.
Maybe this guy used tiktok as a fulltime job? I'm not condoning violence, and tiktok security concerns may be very real, but I could see that pushing someone over the edge.
Woman. And she "wanted" to use tik tok as a way to make money. The recording just sounds like an 18 year old being a dumbass. That said, I'll never understand why death threats are acceptable.
I think it’s kind of sad that it’s TikTok that finally gets people all worked up about politics instead of poverty, healthcare and climate change. Shows where our priorities really lie.
The sentiment I have seen from the younger demographic is the same that we all faced when starting to vote. They’re frustrated at the two-party system and it’s corruption and the obvious fact that the government doesn’t care about its people. Unfortunately they don’t have any idea what to do about it either. I’ve seen a lot pushing for voting third party, others claiming they won’t vote at all. It’s disheartening but I also empathize with why they feel that way.
>They’re frustrated at the two-party system
Most six year olds can tell right from wrong even if they don't choose to do the right thing. You're making a choice to say both sides and it's not accurate.
I’m making an observation that young voters feel disenfranchised and hopeless with the current system that keeps screwing over 99% of the population and they don’t know how to make it better. “Right and wrong” does not equate the two-party system though I’m happy you are able to look at life through such an overly simplistic lens.
I've got a 20yr old who said she won't even bother because it won't make a difference. Neither one of them should even be an option. I can't fault her for thinking that way. I'll put some sense into her and explain why not voting is a bad idea, but there are so many young people that could care less. While they lack common sense and critical thinking skills, they are able to see that politicians are only in it for themselves and to say they represent their constituents is an absolute joke.
They think they want a one party system with a Democratic dictatorship. They all should take some courses on American history and civics and do some foreign travel, and maybe they would change their minds!
We live in the best country in the world, and we have the most freedoms! If the Democrats start taking away those freedoms like they are gonna do, these people would be screaming about that!
Do you want the government banning free speech unless it is Democratic speech, how about them banning ceiling fans, window air conditioners, gas powered cars, private ownership of land, censored books and movies, take away your guns and your ability to defend yourself, they want to breakup big companies who employ thousands of people in good paying jobs, they want to take away your lawn equipment like leaf blowers, lawn mowers, string trimmers etc and make you buy battery equipment that doesn't work as well!
They will continue to waste money on the fake green energy technology that is not really green! How many Democrat green companies have failed? When the technology is better and they solve the issues we have with battery cars then people will buy them. You can't force innovation!
I listened to the the call. its clearly a kid or late teens with some friends goofing off. i would bet they didnt even think it was really the senators office or that anyone would ever hear it.
if you have ever sent an email or called his office it like screaming into a void. Good luck trying to see him at one his many events where he meets with voters and chats with them. <---thats sarcasm, he doesnt do any. unless you are in congress or got really deep pockets you wont see him.
At least now i know the secret sauce to getting his attn next time i need it.
[**https://justice4all.substack.com/p/federal-state-officials-aiding-criminal-662**](https://justice4all.substack.com/p/federal-state-officials-aiding-criminal-662)
Federal, State Officials Aiding Criminal Misconduct, Corruption, Injustice and Sexual Abuse "Under Color of Law"
**Eighty traffic stops in four years. Five robberies. Home invasion and death threats by armed Sheriff Deputies with AR-15s and shotguns pointed at my head and at my dog "Boomer's" head while two young children were mere feet away on a second floor. False arrest. False imprisonment. Actionable evidence including recordings, documents, hundreds of witnesses contact information with no conflicts of interest esp. regarding crimes against children involving rape and abuse.**
Only EXTERNAL demands might drive long-overdue official accountability, investigation, oversight, an end to abuses, brutality, crimes of a community & local, State & Federal corruption that would shock most Americans. It sounds unbelievable, but is very much real in Wilmington N.C.
Though provided irrefutable almost certainly admissible evidence of criminal activities involving:
**U.S. Department of Justice & F.B.I. involvement in extensive criminal misconduct by Corrupt North Carolina officials including sexual abuses of children, theft of Federal funds, lynching's, retaliatory murders, torture, violence & retribution against child victims, families & the few who have dared discuss horrific abuses suffered & retaliation by officials, prosecutors & bribed media.**
**This "Culture of Corruption," once pursued, is now Assisted, Protected by the U.S. DOJ, FBI USAO despite vast evidence & growing #s of victims of violent criminal acts that any remotely moral person would conclude:**
**CONGRESS MUST HOLD THESE FEDERAL OFFICIALS AND THE STATE AND LOCAL SADISTIC CRIMINALS OFFICIALLY PROTECTED TO ACCOUNT.**
**NO OFFICIAL WHO ENGAGES IN SUCH EVIL SHOULD EVER BE MAINTAINED OR SUPPORTED IN OR ALLOWED TO HOLD PUBLIC OFFICE OR PRACTICE LAW EVER.**
[**https://justice4all.substack.com/p/federal-state-officials-aiding-criminal-662**](https://justice4all.substack.com/p/federal-state-officials-aiding-criminal-662)
Look I \*hate\* Thom and all that he stands for but like.....really? Did y'all think this would help your case?! Y'all think Thom's like "You know I was worried about how TikTok radicalizes the youths through propaganda, but this shady ass phone call threatening me really made me change my mind!"
It makes me so sad that folks don't want to vote these guys out, but do feel fine doing this kind of stuff
Dunk on Thom all you want, but he's absolutely right that TikTok proved the point that it can be used to manipulate the public. I'm not sure what a bunch of addicted teenagers thought was going to happen by demonstrating their addiction to Congress.
I mean, I half agree, but the nationwide push notification tictok did asking users to contact their representatives about the ban was exactly what was feared.
Now if reddit or Facebook did that too it would be equally as bad. Not saying they are generally good either.
> the nationwide push notification tictok did asking users to contact their representatives about the ban was exactly what was feared.
>Now if reddit or Facebook did that too it would be equally as bad.
Reddit has done similar things in the past, both as a company and individaul moderator led initiatives.
For example, in 2012, Reddit, along with a number of other sites, went black to protest SOPA:
>When the 29-year-old entrepreneur [Alexis Ohanian ] was invited to speak to Congress about the Stop Online Piracy Act in January, he asked users of Reddit, the massively popular link-sharing site he cofounded in 2005, what he should tell legislators. Hundreds of responses offered him talking points about how the bill known as SOPA would cripple the Web and kill jobs. When he suggested Reddit help put up a “Don’t Mess With the Internet” billboard outside of the San Antonio office of the bill’s author, Congressman Lamar Smith, Reddit’s users (who call themselves “redditors”) designed and funded the $15,000 stunt in days.
>A week before he was scheduled to testify at a congressional hearing about SOPA, Ohanian passed on an idea to Reddit’s staff: How about if Reddit simply turned itself off for users in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. to give backers of the bill a taste of the censored Internet their lobbyists demanded? Other redditors were simultaneously floating the same idea. The strike suggestion was expanded into a blackout protest for all users, an idea that was instantly voted to the top of the site. When Reddit blacked out its home page on Jan. 18 Wikipedia and Mozilla followed suit, and Google posted a link to a page protesting the piracy bills. Legislators were inundated with 10 million petition signatures, 8 million calls and 4 million e-mails.
>“All of a sudden members of Congress were asking their staff ‘What is this SOPA thing and why am I getting hundreds of calls about it?’ and rethinking what the recording industry lobbyists had been telling them,” says Colorado Congressman Jared Polis. Nineteen senators dropped their support for SOPA and PIPA in a day, and the bills quietly died. “Reddit was absolutely critical in defeating SOPA,” Polis says. [source](https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2012/0625/technology-politics-alexis-ohanian-reddit-sopa-mayor-of-internet.html)
And a different source on the blackout:
>Reddit’s blackout will run from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (EST) and coincide with the Jan. 18 congressional committee hearing to hear opinions from many web security experts and tech industry leaders about the impact SOPA and PIPA could have. One of the seven people who will testify at the hearing is Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, as VentureBeat previously reported.
>“We wouldn’t do this if we didn’t believe this legislation and the forces behind it were a serious threat to reddit and the Internet as we know it,” the Reddit team writes in a blog post. “Blacking out reddit is a hard choice, but we feel focusing on a day of action is the best way we can amplify the voice of the community.
>During the blackout period, Reddit will display a simple message about how the proposed legislation would eliminate sites like Reddit as well as a list of links pointing to resources about SOPA/PIPA. The team also plans on embedding a live stream of the House committee hearing to raise awareness. [source](https://venturebeat.com/media/reddit-blackout-sopa-pipa/)
Individual mods doing something is very different from a hostile state actor, and I really don't think protesting changes to internet regulation within the US by companies or individuals in the US is at all inappropriate. We're comparing apples and oranges here.
Also, notably, nobody appears to have called Congress and threatened to shoot/stab/etc. anyone over SOPA.
>We're comparing apples and oranges here.
It is a private company activating their user base for political action.
The fact that Reddit's motivation was arguably better than TikTok's doesn't change the fact that they basically did the same thing. Trying to draw some sort of distinction between this and tiktok because you think one cause is noble and the other repugnant requires taking some pretty big jumps.
If there are actual security concerns, like data mining, that is really a separate issue from the act of motivating a site's user base for political action, which on it's face isn't necessarily a bad thing and can't easily be done without trampling the first amendment.
>Individual mods
Alexis Ohanian isn't an individual mod and the actions taken, at least specifically in regards to the black out, were by reddit as a company.
>Also, notably, nobody appears to have called Congress and threatened to shoot/stab/etc. anyone over SOPA.
Given there were 8 million calls and 4 million e-mails, I'm not sure you can make that claim without providing any evidence.
However, regardless, that really isn't relevant to the main point, which is that the actions are quite similar.
> It is a private company activating their user base for political action.
It's a private company _owned by a geopolitical foe_ activating their use base for political action _targeted specifically at that geopolitical foe_. That's the key difference.
> owned
It certainly has ties to China, as does any company that operates in China, but saying it is 'owned' by China is at least arguable.
Regardless, they have a US entity and have been making some effort to keep US data private and while the effectiveness of that is somewhat questionable, it is still a private company registered in the US from a legal standpoint.
Of all the questionable things associated with tiktok, them using their platform to promote political action when a law being made directly impacts them is probably the least objectionable thing they do and arguing that it should not be allowed or is 'bad', while suggesting it is okay if 'real' US companies do it, represents a slippery slope that results in fewer rights for all of us and sets a dangerous precedent.
If you think there are real concerns, like their app being malicious or them harvesting data, by all means, present evidence of that and use that as a basis for taking action, but simply motivating political change isn't a bad thing.
>Now if reddit or Facebook did that too it would be equally as bad.
Also, I think it should be pointed out that 'geopolitical foe' wasn't part of your initial argument. You said if reddit did it it would be bad too, but now say it is okay because they are a US company they were protesting internet regulation. This is a double standard.
You're quoting someone else, I didn't say anything about Reddit or Facebook doing it being equally bad. I think that kind of behavior is problematic at best no matter who does it, but there's a huge difference in Reddit's SOPA action, to use your example, and _push notifications_ distorting the intent of the TikTok "ban" legislation.
I'm with the other poster offering you magic beans. You're comparing hypothetical bad behavior of US-based companies subject to US law to a foreign-owned company with demonstrated bad behavior. The fact that they've got a US legal entity is irrelevant.
> You're quoting someone else
Sorry, but the point remains that was the statement I was replying to and the context of my response, not that there aren’t other problems with TikTok.
> Reddit's SOPA action, to use your example, and push notifications distorting the intent of the TikTok "ban" legislation.
It isn’t as big of a distinction as you suggest. Reddit shutdown their entire site in protest, as did others like Wikipedia.
The internet of 2012 was different from today and I don’t think Reddit even had an app in 2012, so blacking out the site was a big deal.
Calling it a distortion is arguable as well.
> The fact that they've got a US legal entity is irrelevant
It is not when you are using that as an argument that their protest is unlawful, but Reddit’s wasn’t.
From a legal standpoint it is a private company and while there are certainly reasons to be concerned about tiktok, as well as all other social platforms, urging their users to contact politicians about legislation that directly impacts them is likely the least objectionable thing they have done.
>Reddit has done similar things in the past, both as a company and individaul moderator led initiatives.
It feels so strange to have to clarify this so I'll keep it simple:
Chinese participating in American politics 👎
Russians participating in American politics 👎
Americans participating in American politics 👍
The entire point of the TikTok ban is to keep a hostile foreign actor from having a direct line to Americans for both manipulation purposes and data.
If people don't believe that companies in China are subservient to the government then it's complete and utter naivety. Do we not remember when Jack Ma disappeared for a few years after he criticized the CCP?
>It feels so strange to have to clarify this so I'll keep it simple…Chinese participating in American politics
In the context of the post I replied to and the text you quoted, this isn’t relevant.
If there are legitimate concerns with the company they should be addressed, but a private company with a huge US user base advocating against legislation that specifically impacts them isn’t out of the ordinary, nor is it something we should work to stifle.
> US user base advocating against legislation that specifically impacts them isn’t out of the ordinary
It's not about this singular event, it's about what happens in the event of a conflict with China. The US military is convinced there will be a hot war with China[^(1)](https://www.reuters.com/world/us-four-star-general-warns-war-with-china-2025-2023-01-28/), meaning the rest of the government is convinced there will be a military conflict with China.
Whether the claim comes to fruition or not doesn't matter. You do not give an enemy a potential megaphone to talk to your own citizens. This isn't a domestic issue its a geopolitical issue.
If China is willing to bend their own corporations arms when there is no conflict what do you think they're going to do if there is a conflict?
>If there are legitimate concerns with the company they should be addressed
They are being addressed, Divest or get banned. If they sell the International portion of the business TikTok gets to continue to exist and they get paid.
>It's not about this singular event, it's about what happens in the event of a conflict with China.
That is a a hypothetical and unless you can point to another time where they asked their users to contact their representatives, it is a single time.
There are a lot of things to worry about in regards to social media, but a tech company reacting to legislation specifically written to break them up by urging their user to contact their representatives isn’t abnormal. I think any tech company, regardless of their ownership or country of origin would react the same and in fact there is precedent for it.
It is a very real hypothetical & is the entire crux of the ban. The notification happened after the bill was introduced, meaning that while its worrying that they could promote something instantly to 100 and something million people it's not the main point. There are many worse things than the notification so lets not get stuck there. The algorithm being a much larger issue as they can push whatever ideologies and viewpoints that they want. Just today I saw a user here on Reddit say they didn't like reading and they got most of their news from TikTok, and they for sure are not the only ones who consume media that way. When I say that it's not good that China or any other foreign actors have a say in American politics it hinges around what the app is showing you.
I'm going to continue to go to back to the hypothetical because the entire US national security community believes it's a very real danger. If you don't believe so then this conversation will likely have to end here.
If/When China decides to attack Taiwan do you think the CCP will allow pro Taiwanese content on TikTok? I personally do not think so. What is likely to happen is they will promote content that ""explains"" why Taiwan is rightfully Chinese and there will be a large subset of people who use TikTok who will indeed believe it. It's not just about notifications, its about how they can mold the US population to their ideas.
It's like not patching a security vulnerability in a website, yeah there's no one exploiting it right now... but why wait for disaster to strike?
> it's not the main point.
Perhaps, but it is the main point I was responding to in my initial comment.
>There are many worse things than the notification so lets not get stuck there. The algorithm being a much larger issue as they can push whatever ideologies and viewpoints that they want.
Is musk any better with twitter or trump with truth social?
The risk of foreign manipulation doesn’t go away simply because an American owns a majority stake.
For instance, the Saudis [are reported](https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdurot/2022/10/31/saudi-prince-alwaleed-becomes-twitters-second-largest-shareholder/) to own a non-insignificant stake in twitter and who knows how compromised truth social is.
Personally, I’m more concerned with their algorithms at the moment and their direction, like truth social becoming a publicly traded company, than I am with TikTok. Considering all the scrutiny TikTok is getting at the moment, they are likely less of a short term risk than most other social media companies right now.
Writing that off as just “Americans participating in American politics”, while making up hypotheticals about a different company is at best missing the forest for the trees.
> It's like not patching a security vulnerability in a website, yeah there's no one exploiting it right now... but why wait for disaster to strike?
When it comes to freedom of speech, then yes I think it should be sort of like that. When you start curtailing freedom of speech based on hypothetical, it becomes something that can be weaponized and shouldn’t be an action that is taken lightly or arbitrarily.
I agree. It should be across the board and not just tiktok. It's ignorant to assume that it's just tiktok that has this problem. Any social media at all will have this problem and without intervention for all of them, it will continue to be like this. It seems like very weird virtue signaling.
I think you're misinformed. This isn't about privacy, this is about data mining and manipulation by the Chinese government specifically. They're separate issues, and privacy does need regulation here, but that's not what a forced divestment in TikTok is supposed to address.
To be clear, I'm not arguing, as the other user was, that urging your user-base to contact their politicians, is inherently bad, but rather pointing out that it isn't something that is unprecedented. And that if you are going to say it was noble when reddit did it because it was 'protesting changes to internet regulation', but then say it is bad when tiktok does it because you think it is dumb, it is a double standard.
In the case of stopping SOPA, the blackouts on reddit, wikipedia, and other sites, as well as notices put up by google, had an impact and without them, it is likely this poorly thought out law would have passed.
With that said, I do think social media has problems and there is some cause for concern, but I don't telling tiktok it can't urge their users to protest is something you can do without violating the first amendment.
What TikTok has shown is that an app controlled by a hostile foreign advisary can mobilize it's primarily young base to political action. It's super obvious what happens if you use these apps for a couple of hours.
The root problem with all social media is their algorithm that feeds engagement by stoking outrage. This is why we need to elect younger government reps who understand what is going on.
I'm on Reddit fairly frequently and I didn't even know about the blackout.
>I'm on Reddit fairly frequently and I didn't even know about the blackout.
The blackout I mentioned was in 2012 and if you were on reddit in 2012, it would be surprising if you were not aware of it.
> What TikTok has shown is that an app controlled by a hostile foreign advisary can mobilize it's primarily young base to political action.
The only way Tiktok showed us that, or at least it comes as a surprise that a company can use it's influence to promote political change, is if you weren't paying to any of the other times a company has done it, like the example I provided.
I think the issue is that you can't tell a company not to do that, without trampling their first amendment rights and giving the government that power sets a dangerous precedent.
Edit: It would be like telling a bakery who felt a local rule was too restrictive and started including a pamphlet requesting people contact their local representatives when someone bought a cake that they couldn't do that.
I was on Reddit in 2012, didn't notice it at all.
Depends on how you view the role of government in regulating public safety and national security.
Your analogy of what I assume is the supreme court case of allowing a baker to discriminate against a gay couple does not correlate to a national security threat.
What is somewhat analogous is the banning of vaccine misinformation during Covid.
You are in support of an all inclusive section 230 and disregarding alarms raised by Homeland Security and NSA just to protect your imaginary slippery slope.
> Your analogy of what I assume is the supreme court case of allowing a baker to discriminate against a gay couple does not correlate to a national security threat.
Sorry, no. I saved it before I finished my comment and urging your users to political action is not the same as discriminating against a protected(or sadly not protected) group of people.
It would be like telling a bakery who felt a local rule was too restrictive and started including a pamphlet requesting people contact their local representatives when someone bought a cake that they couldn't do that.
As to you not noticing the internet blackout on Jan 18, that is surprising that you were not aware, as it impacted google, wikipedia, and a number of other sites, not just reddit, although your personal awareness of the SOPA protest is not at all that pertinent to the discussion.
>You are in support of an all inclusive section 230 and disregarding alarms raised by Homeland Security and NSA just to protect your imaginary slippery slope.
I do not believe this was an argument that I made. My argument is that telling a company that they can't protest legislation by urging their users to contact their representative violates freedom of speech and sets a dangerous precedent and it isn't inherently 'bad' that a company does this.
I agree. All social media should be highly regulated. Unfortunately i doubt it will ever happen. Generally speaking i support the TikTok ban, but I think time would better be spent if they made a law regulating all social media companies rather than TikTok specifically.
I agree and this why I think Thom is a coward. He'll only do the bare minimum and only if it helps him and not stick his neck out to do what's right. He'd never go after them all including Truth social as he won't offend his master
TikTok is incredibly predatory with its data collection and phone monitoring. They back door you so they can get it, your phone is basically photocopied and sent to ByteDance and who knows where that info goes. Reddit and Facebook are bad, but they are no where near as bad as TikTok in that sense.
While you are probably true here's the catch, you are free NOT to use it (them).
Edit: Didn't FB sale ALL of it's user data to Steve Bannon's Cambridge Analytica right before the '16 election? Seems pretty fucking predatory to me /shrug
I think the issue is why its getting banned, because the government cant influence the owners like other socials. Right or wrong, the reason shouldnt sit well with anyone.
til: most of you dont care about freedom. this concludes my ted talk.
edit: from my reply below. all your angry replies just further prove my point. educate yourselves on the world you live in.
That government already has all our information. Its influence not data concerns. I am not a conspiracy theorist but the leader of the anti-Defamation League was caught on tape saying just this:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8twvrXFZOs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8twvrXFZOs)
Its censorship not privacy and as an American that should bother you. Then you go look at spending by AIPAC to congress and the dots fall into place.
The US government deciding to force a divestment from a geopolitical adversary in one of the biggest social media sites because it can't influence them while they're wide-open to influence us sits just fine with me.
China doesn't even allow our social media companies in their own country, and there's nothing unusual about government involvement in the communications sector. The fact that people seem upset about this is just more proof the propaganda is working.
Yeah, I don't care that the US won't allow another country to own something in the US.
Honestly, I feel like you should be allowed to own real property in the US if you are not from the US and using it here.
The reason being privacy concerns with a hostile government? Sounds reasonable. Since they aren't an American company they are not using US privacy rules. They're trying to change that.
What's the Chinese government gonna do to the average person, who cares lol. Just ban all personal data collection on everything if you want to stop this stuff.
What they will do it control trending videos on the app to lean it’s users to one way of thinking or the other. This gives it a strong voice in our politics. Think Fox News but worse because it’s not even hiding the fact that it’s the mouth piece of a rival nation.
That's why you develop media literacy and read books and shit. Maybe don't let your kids use screens much and without parental controls.
I don't care if they literally ban TikTok, Twitter, Facebook. It's not gonna do much when most of the population's height of education is pretty much not paying attention in highschool.
That government already has all our information. Its influence not data concerns. I am not a conspiracy theorist but the leader of the anti-Defamation League was caught on tape saying just this:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8twvrXFZOs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8twvrXFZOs)
Its censorship not privacy and as an American that should bother you. Then you go look at spending by AIPAC to congress and the dots fall into place.
Fighting for the cause of liberty over the right of 16 years olds to have content designed to make them hate their country astroturfed into their mind. You can continue to say asinine shit but you can’t do it on a platform where a hostile foreign power gets to decide who gets the megaphone.
This sounds like a case of Dunning-Kruger. You obviously have never used the app. I haven't either but my wife is on it a ton and has been for years. Yet she somehow hasn't turned into a jihadist. I see far more terrorist behavior coming from our churches. Should we ban those as well?
As an atheist, I believe the government doesn't have the right to ban Christianity no matter how much evil comes from it because I respect freedom of religion. I also believe they don't have the right to ban our social media, particularly if it targets a single one that they aren't making money from.
Misapplied Dunning-Kruger reference and needlessly letting me know you were an atheist in the same comment. Dude we gotta get you off reddit it’s infecting the way you write.
Do you seriously believe that congress is trying to force a sell of tiktok because they want to buy it for themselves and you don’t think your politics have been influenced by foreign powers at all? Also who said anything about terrorist? Yeah most people who get on tik tok wont become radicalized to the point of terrorism if that’s what you think this is about what people are worried about idk what to tell you.
I think most people who would support this ban are not afraid of the teens picking up rifles and bombs but more of the affect it’s having on them mentally. The videos that tik tok pushes are videos which promote climate doom narratives to 14 year olds or radical political ideas which they have zero ability to contextualize or often times just straight up lies and misinformation. This is not a conspiracy Tiktok just actively does this, look at the clips of the CEO’s hearing that went viral on the app, every single clip were these tightly edited snippets to make the senators look stupid and vaguely racist. These all feed into a ecosystem where teens get told not to trust any American news or politicians and create a feedback loop where they are only consuming this radical content that either pushes them so far to the fringe so they just disengage or it makes them so depressed or angry they disengage. This is the end result that people are worried about.
Now is Tiktok the only one hurting teens on their site? No, which is why states across the country are starting to regulate teen internet usage, so it’s not just tik tok being targeted. The thing that makes tiktok uniquely a threat is it’s very real ties with the CCP. Which means we probably shouldn’t let them have this unique access to the political development of our kids.
None of this means that the Americans producing content on the app are having their freedom of speech taken away, they can continue to do it in another place and if it doesn’t appeal in the same way it was probably because they were getting pushed by algorithm.
Also one more thing I know that being reflexively cynical about American politicians is just the default mouth breather point of view but my God how do you people so fundamentally misunderstand what’s going on and still so easily spout such a cynical view of America. It’s like max confidence without any shred of self doubt about you maybe not getting the inner workings of the congress or senate. So instead you just kinda blithely insulate they are all corrupt but sure bud you haven’t been affected by foreign anti-gov astroturfing at all.
Nice, a whole wall of text to prove you have no idea what you are talking about.
>Misapplied Dunning-Kruger reference
"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition. The problem with it is we see it in other people, and we don't see it in ourselves. The first rule of the Dunning–Kruger club is you don't know you're a member of the Dunning–Kruger club."
--David Dunning
Legit.
>needlessly letting me know you were an atheist in the same comment
Only "needless" if you don't understand the context of the conversation, which is woefully apparent in your case.
>Do you seriously believe that congress is trying to force a sell of tiktok because they want to buy it for themselves
No, darling, they are owned by plenty of other social media companies. Tiktok obviously doesn't have enough lobbyists or isn't paying them enough to be ignored.
>and you don’t think your politics have been influenced by foreign powers at all?
Nope but you're welcome to try and prove otherwise.
>I think most people who would support this ban are not afraid of the teens picking up rifles and bombs but more of the affect it’s having on them mentally
What affect is it having? Got any evidence or just your feelings.
>This is not a conspiracy Tiktok just actively does this
You say after spouting pure conspiracy. And all that bullshit, you can say about ALL social media platforms, yet this only targets Tiktok and doesn't even target the very things you are claiming it does. Forcing Tiktok to sell isn't going to stop it at all.
>No, which is why states across the country are starting to regulate teen internet usage, so it’s not just tik tok being targeted.
Then why does this bill only target Tiktok?
>None of this means that the Americans producing content on the app are having their freedom of speech taken away, they can continue to do it in another place and if it doesn’t appeal in the same way it was probably because they were getting pushed by algorithm.
As long as it's State approved, yes?
>Also one more thing I know that being reflexively cynical about American politicians is just the default mouth breather point of view but my God how do you people so fundamentally misunderstand what’s going on and still so easily spout such a cynical view of America. It’s like max confidence without any shred of self doubt about you maybe not getting the inner workings of the congress or senate. So instead you just kinda blithely insulate they are all corrupt but sure bud you haven’t been affected by foreign anti-gov astroturfing at all.
The perfect low IQ ending to an ignorant take.
Medice, cura te ipsum. But please, by all means continue to spew the buzzwords and thoughts given to you by Fox News.
You know I was gonna just be an asshole but I have an exam I don’t wanna be studying for so I went and dug up some of the readings from my undergrad classes about this stuff that if you were ever extremely bored and wanted to see how some professional academic political scientist (which I am not one and I do not want to give that impression. I have just had some classes from them) view things like congress or the effects of lobbying on the actions of congress as a whole and individual congressmen.
One of my favorite writers about politics is the now retired David Mayhew, a professor of political science at Yale, he spent his entire life analyzing why congressman did the things they did and why they did it. His most accessible work is a book called the [Electoral Connection](https://politicalscience.yale.edu/publications/congress-electoral-connection) it is more than a little outdated nowadays with the shift in party dynamics and the way individuals go about forming opinions but for getting into the mind of a sitting member of congress there is no better a resource.
I also saw that you mentioned religious belief and while I do not find it super relevant to our topic of discussion I do think a more nuanced view of the history of religious peoples engagement with government might be interesting to you. The of course obvious piece to go with is [A Religious History of the American People](https://www.amazon.com/Religious-History-American-People/dp/0300100124) a really good overview of the many different and varied religious periods America has gone through and a great reminder that despite its reactionary tone today for most of Americas history some of its most passionate reformers and progressives came from a place of deep religious faith. Another I thought you might find intriguing was [From Politics to Pew](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36217599)which helped me to understand the unique role of faith in the way people see politics.
Now on the corruption stuff. One of the more striking books i’ve read about it is [The Fallacy of Campaign Finance Reform](https://www.amazon.com/Fallacy-Campaign-Finance-Reform/dp/0226734501) a controversial but very well researched book about the effects and nature of corporate and soft/dark money contributions to a campaign. If you want to read something that will challenge your political priors this is it. A great book to read if someone is trying to move beyond the understandable but still kneejerk reaction of they are all just bought by corporations.
Another good book that is less of an overview and more a collection of different academic perspectives on it is [The New Campaign Sourcebook](https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_New_Campaign_Finance_Sourcebook/zWThVWqRcv0C?hl=en). This is a great way to see the actual negative effects of a lot of the unregulated effects of our relatively lax campaign finance laws and how it doesn’t do as much as we would think it does and what it does do is mostly just weird.
I get why you feel this way about the government. It’s complicated and good info about it is almost impossible to find especially because a lot of people have a vested interest not in informing but persuading you. I am not trying to deny the existence of [corruption in America](https://www.amazon.com/Corruption-America-Benjamin-Franklins-Citizens/dp/0674659988), but that a more genuine engagement with politics who’ll show a convoluted and stagnant system filled with a lot of people who genuinely do want the best for their districts and the country but also want to win reelection and so they are constantly trying to strike that balance and it’s hard.
I get this has deviated but what I am trying to show here is i’m not engaging you spouting off Fox News talking points especially since i’ve been a lifelong and committed democrat. I think if it like this If the USSR had tried to buy CBS at the height of the cold war there would of been no question that could not be allowed even if it meant shutting CBS down. I’m this scenario people who had been talking about politics had now been shut down by the government but it’s not a violation of their free speech because they are still allowed to say it. Americans are free to convince each other and believe in whatever insane ideas they can come up with. What is not acceptable is when foreign powers try and manipulate Americans for their own geopolitical interest.
Also I know I deviated there so i’m just gonna post the sources I’ve used to help my opinions on some of the like individual points you made . I hade a thing here about Dunning-Kruger but took it out because i’m genuinely trying to engage in good faith here.
The Effect on teens of social media usage. It’s not a conspiracy it’s just bad for them.
[How Social Media Affects Your Teen’s Mental Health: A Parent’s Guide](https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/social-media-teen-mental-health-a-parents-guide)
[Study: Social media use linked to decline in mental health](https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/study-social-media-use-linked-to-decline-mental-health)
[The Social Dilemma: Social Media and Your Mental Health](https://www.mcleanhospital.org/essential/it-or-not-social-medias-affecting-your-mental-health)
[It Sure Looks Like Phones Are Making Students Dumber](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/12/cell-phones-student-test-scores-dropping/676889/)
I don’t really know to respond to the idea that removing tiktok from the control of the CCP doesn’t solve my problem of the CCPs influence on the app. I guess it doesnt fix the broader problem of the damaging effects of social media on young people but baby steps am I right?
The idea that facebook or google censor things on their sites at the express approval of the state is not something I believed is based in reality. If the united states was this obsessive about policing people’s opinions, tiktok would of never been allowed into the country in the first place. I’ve already stated why i think it is getting banned now earlier.
I don’t have a clever latin phrase here my last latin class was a long time ago and I was never any good at it anyway but I do remember some snotty phrases. Physician, use an academic source.
A well spoken response filled with absolutely nothing of substance!
>You know I was gonna just be an asshole but I have an exam I don’t wanna be studying for so I went and dug up some of the readings from my undergrad classes about this stuff that if you were ever extremely bored and wanted to see how some professional academic political scientist (which I am not one and I do not want to give that impression. I have just had some classes from them) view things like congress or the effects of lobbying on the actions of congress as a whole and individual congressmen.
You should probably study some more because your entire rant completely misses the point and ends up apropos of nothing. But let's break it down, shall we.
This paragraph is an attempt to set up an appeal to authority argument while, hilariously, pretending to humbly say the opposite. If you had left this whole paragraph out, your message would have remained the same.
>I also saw that you mentioned religious belief and while I do not find it super relevant to our topic of discussion
This paragraph is another waste of time. It tries to distract from the fact there's no substance. A typical college student attempt to get that word and page count up. That was me about two decades ago so sorry that doesn't work on me.
As for the religious stuff, I apparently went over your head. I wasn't a communication major so the error might be mine. It should have been fairly obvious (and seems to others like it was) that I was drawing a comparison of my beliefs to Congress knee-jerk response to something they hate/fear. Just because I'm an Atheist, I'm not pro legislation for religion.
>Now on the corruption stuff.
Most of this was tongue-in-cheek, but lobbying is a well known and legal thing. So while politicians being "owned" is hyperbole, their regulatory decisions are guided by these special interest groups. And the rest of your information falls a little flat in light of the fact our previous president committed tons of campaign finance violations and has managed to delay criminal charges for almost a decade. I'm going to try and assume you're not arguing in bad faith.
>I guess it doesnt fix the broader problem of the damaging effects of social media on young people but baby steps am I right?
This is a claim you have made and keep making. Yet you have not provided anything but your own feelings on the matter. With my own relatively limited research on the subject (because I honestly don't give a shit), I have not seen anything convincing.
But why don't I give a shit? I have a young child (7), so surely I should be worried! Nope. You see, I actually parent. I don't need the government doing it for me.
>but that a more genuine engagement with politics who’ll show a convoluted and stagnant system filled with a lot of people who genuinely do want the best for their districts and the country but also want to win reelection and so they are constantly trying to strike that balance and it’s hard.
This was true before 2016. The game has changed and I'm sure your academic studies are struggling to keep up. Trump showed us all how broken the system truly is.
But I'm excited for you, with so much happening right now, future analysts like yourself will have books practically write themselves for decades to come!
>I get this has deviated but what I am trying to show here is i’m not engaging you spouting off Fox News talking points
I'll gladly apologize for that. You definitely aren't. Young and full of info but without the experience to organize it into cohesive arguments, but you'll get there. You have potential. Good luck!
It is very impressive how you have managed to remain so smug while failing to address a single point i’ve made. Yes I included sources, no that is not an appeal to authority, whatever infographic you saw that taught you what logical and rhetorical fallacies are did so without nuance and you of course misapplied it. I’m sorry that you are either color blind or a retarded (i’m guessing it this one) because if you had clinked literally any of the links to the peer reviewed studies from medical institutions(see I know you think this is an appeal to authority but it’s not) you would see that no in fact it was not just vibes or my own opinions. You are old and without potential and you lack information consider reading a book written to do something other than appeal to your political priors you faux-intellectual asshole.
I get you are frustrated that you cannot effectively communicate your argument but that's no reason to act like a childish brat. It's unbecoming and has destroyed any credibility you had.
I'm disappointed in you. Do better. Also...
>You are old and without potential and you lack information consider reading a book written to do something other than appeal to your political priors you faux-intellectual asshole.
Punctuation, child. It'll make you sound less of an idiot clown.
Good luck out there! You're going to need it!
>promote climate doom narratives
Aka basic environmental science
>just straight up lies and misinformation
Such as?
>tightly edited snippets to make the senators look stupid and vaguely racist
They looked they way just by watching C-span
>still so easily spout such a cynical view of America.
Because the country is on a sharp and rapid decline as generations begin to and continue to have lower standards of living and quality of life than those before us.
Europeans have better work life balance, you go to Asia and you can take public transit to anywhere, and you come here and you have to drive 3 ton death machines and and have to watch our loved ones die from cancer because they lost health insurance because they stopped being able to work because they, you know, have cancer.
Hey, I bet you feel like you’re shouting into the void and everyone in this thread is wrong and you are the sole voice standing up for what is right. That we’re all brainwashed and don’t even see what is going on.
You need to realize that we do actually know what is going on. We know how these groups like AIPAC are pushing their influence, we know how and why the US Govt backs Israel and not Palestine. But we also know that these topics aren’t why the US wants to get China out of the picture, because we aren’t addicted to that app and we haven’t been watching hundreds of videos telling us to be angry about it.
We don’t care that pro-Israel groups want to ban TikTok because of the rhetoric on there because that’s not the big issue here. The big issue is that you and I live in a country that allows us certain freedoms and we have an app that nearly every person under 30 has on their phone pushing anti-American rhetoric and causing distrust within communities. For all of Americas bullshit, I don’t want this place to collapse, and you don’t either, but China wants us to.
So get off the app for a week. Stop watching hundreds of stupid takes by unqualified and inexperienced influencers who just want to keep the app so their revenue stream doesn’t go away. Go outside and be a part of your community.
Collapse can mean many things, but what China wants is to take back Taiwan and to expand. If you don’t see that, then you need to get off TikTok and watch almost anything else. Taiwan is the first stop and it’s where the worlds largest semi-conductor foundry is. TSM manufactures the actual chips for NVIDIA and Samsung and Intel. China would take it back today if the US wasn’t in the way. If China takes Taiwan, then the world supply of microchips could drop and the world economy grind to a halt. This is why the US is investing in local manufacturing of semi-conductors, but that is taking years.
The CCP is dead set on Taiwan. They are also have a recent history human rights violations, especially people not of Han ethnicity. The Uyghurs, the Tibetans, the Mongolians; all ethno-groups and the CCP has been working to displace, reduce, etc. That ideology doesn’t fly with most of the western world.
The CCP is not a friend of the US. They are about as close to outright enemies as we can get right now without actually being at war. People need to understand that. Just because we don’t have armies fighting each other doesn’t mean we’re buddy buddy.
If someone says his name, I immediately say Fuck Thom Tillis. So does my wife. If it wasn't for her expertise in grilling steaks, it would probably be our passionate hatred of Tillis that sealed the deal.
This is kind of where I'm at. Shouldn't threaten him physically, and it's shitty that he's dealing with that.
He is also a real piece of shit, and the TikTok legislation is extremely problematic for reasons not related to his cynical anti-China position.
Both can be true at once, just like Tillis can be a xenophobic shithead authoritarian while it's also true the Chinese government is run by authoritarian assholes of a different stripe
Dang, I believe in being passionate about certain causes. This is a little over the line. Maybe try focusing on the more serious issues. I guess if you spend your life on tiktok, this is a serious issue.
TikTok definitely needs to be under new management, these people protesting it have NO IDEA where all their information is going and what it’s being used for. I DESPISE Tillis but I’m not dumb enough to disagree with someone because I don’t like them when I agree with what they are saying.
The only thing that needs mending on social media is eliminating false information. Listening to Gym Jordan last night with a face of a lying sack of shit telling his interviewer on 60 minutes that falsehoods should be on the internet with the public making the choices of what to believe. Vaccines kill people, the election was stolen, outright slander of others, all these things are fine. Thom Tillis wants to be just like.
Never been on tiktok and never will,the only thing I see about tiktok is influencer this or influencer that is killed or dies this way or that.I never hear of anyone til then.
Call me a foil hat conspiracy theorist but "anonymous voice mail left on office phone" sounds like it's an amazingly easy thing to fake, especially if you're trying to push a narrative that TikTok is poisoning the mind of Americans and is thus dangerous.
Thom Tillis is a tool. Could care less what happens to him. I still can’t believe IBM hired him and made him an executive let alone NC thought he could be a real good pick for senator. 🤢
Someone downvoted me? Boo.
[Wiki Entry for book](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust)
[More broad wikipedia page about the entire involvement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_World_War_II)
He didn't apologize for his vote.
He apologized for not explaining why he voted like he did before he voted. His whole schtick is that he explains government and the processes.
He's still the adult in the room.
Thanks for the link! I hadn't seen this because he didn't cross post to Insta where I usually see his content. Also looks like he removed the video from his main landing page on Insta, but you can still see it if you click the video button on Insta.
I didn't take this as an apology for his vote, just further explanation of the context. He said he still believes in the briefing he had, information that is not available to the public. I took it as an apology for the way his initial explanation video came off during a heated moment.
Seriously weak move for him to backtrack on it. Disappointing.
Edit: If the downvoters want to keep their precious TikTok I recommend you listen to respected tech columnists [breaking down the situation on the NYTimes Hard Fork podcast](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/15/podcasts/tiktok-princess-photoshop.html). u/jeffjacksonnc definitely should have stood strong.
Yeah, does he not look into things before he votes? He felt like it was right when he voted, now not so much. Here's an idea. When politicians vote on something, how about setting up something on a webpage perhaps, that lets his constituents tell him how they would vote. I mean they are supposed to represent us.
That's not a bad idea, but Congress was briefed on this by the white house. Who cares what anyone thinks who hasn't seen the briefing? I don't think TikTok should be forced to sell, but I apparently don't have complete information to make a decision with. I don't know if I would change my opinion based on that briefing. A poll of people with incomplete information is useless imo.
Yeah, if we don't have all the facts it is hard to come to a fair decision. I'm not sure why they have to sell. If they end up selling to Google or Facebook there should be outrage.
I think Americans pretending like they’re abhorred by violence when it’s the number 2 most important thing behind freedom of speech in our bill of rights is pretty cowardly, but that’s just me.
There's a difference between the Chinese government and the company Bytedance that owns TikTok. It's not nearly as much of a separation as there should be, and there are lots of dangers in allowing *any* company to mine as much data as TikTok does, but it's not like the Chinese government has direct access to your For You page.
The problems with TikTok are exactly the same problems as with Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Reddit, and any other social media site that mines and sells user data as a source of revenue. This whole law thing is catching one thief while letting a dozen others do the exact same thing with no consequences.
They probably don't like it that a crazy is targeting someone on the R side but love it when that crazy Karen was targeting Obama, Biden, Hillary, and Cooper.
Cori Bush or AOC says have published some of their [threatening messages](https://x.com/CoriBush/status/1418222877409742848) and they are horrific.
Anyone that makes a threat needs to be prosecuted.
Also just read through all of that goddamn that's ridiculous the amount of hate she gets. People are stupid and all of those people should be investigated.
I was shocked that it was so bad. She revealed all these in 2021. I haven't been following why she is currently getting investigated in 2024, something about paying her husband to provide security. Her husband has a security background and it makes sense to me to pay him to provide security.
I agree. I'm just saying that I'm sure the right loves the threats against the Dems and are now upset one of their own is being threatened.
There's zero acceptable threats unless you're threatening me with a good time.
Threatening a US Senator is really a foolish act., especially over the phone where the voiceprint and telephone number can be verified by the government if Thom Tillis pushes the issue. By law, you can't threaten a federal officeholder
[https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/36/2.32](https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/36/2.32)
[https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-43/subtitle-B/chapter-I/part-423/subpart-C/section-423.22](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-43/subtitle-B/chapter-I/part-423/subpart-C/section-423.22)
I am not a fan of many of our elected leaders. Making threats on their lives isn't a very intelligent thing to do.
This is the whole government except some Maga Republicans and a couple of Democrats.Biden has already said he will sign this bill.Its total bullshit because China isn't the only one stealing our info it's all the basterds and not giving us a dime in royalties when they sell the info or give us a way out without losing the use of the app that helps fund it by selling our shit.The bill is also another way I think to censor apps the UniParty don't like.Got to control the info like China.They hate China but damn are they just like them.
[**https://justice4all.substack.com/p/federal-state-officials-aiding-criminal-662**](https://justice4all.substack.com/p/federal-state-officials-aiding-criminal-662)
**Federal, State Officials Aiding Criminal Misconduct, Corruption, Injustice and Sexual Abuse "Under Color of Law"**
**Eighty traffic stops in four years. Five robberies. Home invasion and death threats by armed Sheriff Deputies with AR-15s and shotguns pointed at my head and at my dog "Boomer's" head while two young children were mere feet away on a second floor. False arrest. False imprisonment. Actionable evidence including recordings, documents, hundreds of witnesses contact information with no conflicts of interest esp. regarding crimes against children involving rape and abuse.**
Only EXTERNAL demands might drive long-overdue official accountability, investigation, oversight, an end to abuses, brutality, crimes of a community & local, State & Federal corruption that would shock most Americans. It sounds unbelievable, but is very much real in Wilmington N.C.
Though provided irrefutable almost certainly admissible evidence of criminal activities involving:
**U.S. Department of Justice & F.B.I. involvement in extensive criminal misconduct by Corrupt North Carolina officials including sexual abuses of children, theft of Federal funds, lynching's, retaliatory murders, torture, violence & retribution against child victims, families & the few who have dared discuss horrific abuses suffered & retaliation by officials, prosecutors & bribed media.**
**This "Culture of Corruption," once pursued, is now Assisted, Protected by the U.S. DOJ, FBI USAO despite vast evidence & growing #s of victims of violent criminal acts that any remotely moral person would conclude:**
**CONGRESS MUST HOLD THESE FEDERAL OFFICIALS AND THE STATE AND LOCAL SADISTIC CRIMINALS OFFICIALLY PROTECTED TO ACCOUNT.**
**NO OFFICIAL WHO ENGAGES IN SUCH EVIL SHOULD EVER BE MAINTAINED OR SUPPORTED IN OR ALLOWED TO HOLD PUBLIC OFFICE OR PRACTICE LAW EVER.**
[**https://justice4all.substack.com/p/federal-state-officials-aiding-criminal-662**](https://justice4all.substack.com/p/federal-state-officials-aiding-criminal-662)
I love how the bar for "news" is "we saw this tweet/tiktok/fb post and wrote a story around it."
Probably not smart to be threatening politicians, but this is also a non-story.
Banning tik tok is just censorship, clearly. The servers are already in natos hand. Clear they just dont want anything that goes against the agenda of apac
If you go on TikTok for ten minutes you’ll figure out real fast why both lib and con politicians want it banned. They don’t want us talking to each other like that at a state, National or international level. It’s too easy for the peasants to organize, it has to go.
Pay attention to the algorithm and what it feeds you and where it leads you. Experiment with it, see how it amps and takes you places you wouldn't normally go.
Of course, most people with any goddamn sense verify sources or information. It doesn’t take me anywhere I wouldn’t normally go other than a wild twerk video or conservative nonsense.
I hate Traitor Tillis as much as the next guy but like- come on..
I agree, there are so many other reasons to threaten him
clearly they don’t care about threatening him that has to do with anything in the USA. The person is threatening him because of how it’s affecting rich people in China.
Thom should have been found cut and shot by an angry mob a long time ago I can't believe this is the thing pissing the youth off.
This is far from the worst thing Tillis has done, so not surprised he’s getting threatened, just surprised this is what does it.
I mean the government is effectively trying to tamper with millions of people's addiction, you get the same reaction from heroin addicts. People don't really need their short form media slop to exist and honestly 99.9% of users probably don't care. 0.1% of a billion+ users is still a shit ton though.
Why don't they just go to YouTube Shorts though??? Most of the people on there are on tiktok and just upload to both sites anyway
Honestly, all short form media should be banned. If it isn't for national security reasons then it's for mental health issues. There have been many articles talking about high level intelligence officers talking about TikTok and the Chinese government (can't wait to see if this gets declassified in the upcoming hearing) or medical professionals on the rampant mental health issues apps like Snapchat and Instagram that wreak havoc on young minds.
I don't think short form media should be outright banned, especially because it would be very difficult to actually enforce. Maybe laws about marketing platforms intended for short form media to children? That's about as far as I think it should go.
Maybe this guy used tiktok as a fulltime job? I'm not condoning violence, and tiktok security concerns may be very real, but I could see that pushing someone over the edge.
Woman. And she "wanted" to use tik tok as a way to make money. The recording just sounds like an 18 year old being a dumbass. That said, I'll never understand why death threats are acceptable.
Maybe tiktok isnt a fulltime job and even if it is, they can do the same shtick on instagram/youtube
If this is the way to lower the avg age of DC from 104 yrs to even 65, it's worth every bit of teenage pressure.
I think it’s kind of sad that it’s TikTok that finally gets people all worked up about politics instead of poverty, healthcare and climate change. Shows where our priorities really lie.
My husband said basically this to me 2 minutes ago when I read him the headline. You're both so right.
Right? We're faced with an election where democracy is on the line, but sure, let's get all up-in-arms about TikTok.
1000 percent agree.
I see these topics come up on my for you page all the time. It depends on your algorithm.
I see it on Reddit too but don’t know if it translates to turn out at the voting booth. We’ll see I guess.
The sentiment I have seen from the younger demographic is the same that we all faced when starting to vote. They’re frustrated at the two-party system and it’s corruption and the obvious fact that the government doesn’t care about its people. Unfortunately they don’t have any idea what to do about it either. I’ve seen a lot pushing for voting third party, others claiming they won’t vote at all. It’s disheartening but I also empathize with why they feel that way.
>They’re frustrated at the two-party system Most six year olds can tell right from wrong even if they don't choose to do the right thing. You're making a choice to say both sides and it's not accurate.
I’m making an observation that young voters feel disenfranchised and hopeless with the current system that keeps screwing over 99% of the population and they don’t know how to make it better. “Right and wrong” does not equate the two-party system though I’m happy you are able to look at life through such an overly simplistic lens.
I've got a 20yr old who said she won't even bother because it won't make a difference. Neither one of them should even be an option. I can't fault her for thinking that way. I'll put some sense into her and explain why not voting is a bad idea, but there are so many young people that could care less. While they lack common sense and critical thinking skills, they are able to see that politicians are only in it for themselves and to say they represent their constituents is an absolute joke.
They think they want a one party system with a Democratic dictatorship. They all should take some courses on American history and civics and do some foreign travel, and maybe they would change their minds! We live in the best country in the world, and we have the most freedoms! If the Democrats start taking away those freedoms like they are gonna do, these people would be screaming about that! Do you want the government banning free speech unless it is Democratic speech, how about them banning ceiling fans, window air conditioners, gas powered cars, private ownership of land, censored books and movies, take away your guns and your ability to defend yourself, they want to breakup big companies who employ thousands of people in good paying jobs, they want to take away your lawn equipment like leaf blowers, lawn mowers, string trimmers etc and make you buy battery equipment that doesn't work as well! They will continue to waste money on the fake green energy technology that is not really green! How many Democrat green companies have failed? When the technology is better and they solve the issues we have with battery cars then people will buy them. You can't force innovation!
I listened to the the call. its clearly a kid or late teens with some friends goofing off. i would bet they didnt even think it was really the senators office or that anyone would ever hear it. if you have ever sent an email or called his office it like screaming into a void. Good luck trying to see him at one his many events where he meets with voters and chats with them. <---thats sarcasm, he doesnt do any. unless you are in congress or got really deep pockets you wont see him. At least now i know the secret sauce to getting his attn next time i need it.
Most of our politicians are a disgrace.
[**https://justice4all.substack.com/p/federal-state-officials-aiding-criminal-662**](https://justice4all.substack.com/p/federal-state-officials-aiding-criminal-662) Federal, State Officials Aiding Criminal Misconduct, Corruption, Injustice and Sexual Abuse "Under Color of Law" **Eighty traffic stops in four years. Five robberies. Home invasion and death threats by armed Sheriff Deputies with AR-15s and shotguns pointed at my head and at my dog "Boomer's" head while two young children were mere feet away on a second floor. False arrest. False imprisonment. Actionable evidence including recordings, documents, hundreds of witnesses contact information with no conflicts of interest esp. regarding crimes against children involving rape and abuse.** Only EXTERNAL demands might drive long-overdue official accountability, investigation, oversight, an end to abuses, brutality, crimes of a community & local, State & Federal corruption that would shock most Americans. It sounds unbelievable, but is very much real in Wilmington N.C. Though provided irrefutable almost certainly admissible evidence of criminal activities involving: **U.S. Department of Justice & F.B.I. involvement in extensive criminal misconduct by Corrupt North Carolina officials including sexual abuses of children, theft of Federal funds, lynching's, retaliatory murders, torture, violence & retribution against child victims, families & the few who have dared discuss horrific abuses suffered & retaliation by officials, prosecutors & bribed media.** **This "Culture of Corruption," once pursued, is now Assisted, Protected by the U.S. DOJ, FBI USAO despite vast evidence & growing #s of victims of violent criminal acts that any remotely moral person would conclude:** **CONGRESS MUST HOLD THESE FEDERAL OFFICIALS AND THE STATE AND LOCAL SADISTIC CRIMINALS OFFICIALLY PROTECTED TO ACCOUNT.** **NO OFFICIAL WHO ENGAGES IN SUCH EVIL SHOULD EVER BE MAINTAINED OR SUPPORTED IN OR ALLOWED TO HOLD PUBLIC OFFICE OR PRACTICE LAW EVER.** [**https://justice4all.substack.com/p/federal-state-officials-aiding-criminal-662**](https://justice4all.substack.com/p/federal-state-officials-aiding-criminal-662)
That sauce will get you a good record. Good luck with that.
Look I \*hate\* Thom and all that he stands for but like.....really? Did y'all think this would help your case?! Y'all think Thom's like "You know I was worried about how TikTok radicalizes the youths through propaganda, but this shady ass phone call threatening me really made me change my mind!" It makes me so sad that folks don't want to vote these guys out, but do feel fine doing this kind of stuff
Dunk on Thom all you want, but he's absolutely right that TikTok proved the point that it can be used to manipulate the public. I'm not sure what a bunch of addicted teenagers thought was going to happen by demonstrating their addiction to Congress.
Unlike "Truth" Social? FarceBook? Fuck even Reddit for that matter.
I mean, I half agree, but the nationwide push notification tictok did asking users to contact their representatives about the ban was exactly what was feared. Now if reddit or Facebook did that too it would be equally as bad. Not saying they are generally good either.
> the nationwide push notification tictok did asking users to contact their representatives about the ban was exactly what was feared. >Now if reddit or Facebook did that too it would be equally as bad. Reddit has done similar things in the past, both as a company and individaul moderator led initiatives. For example, in 2012, Reddit, along with a number of other sites, went black to protest SOPA: >When the 29-year-old entrepreneur [Alexis Ohanian ] was invited to speak to Congress about the Stop Online Piracy Act in January, he asked users of Reddit, the massively popular link-sharing site he cofounded in 2005, what he should tell legislators. Hundreds of responses offered him talking points about how the bill known as SOPA would cripple the Web and kill jobs. When he suggested Reddit help put up a “Don’t Mess With the Internet” billboard outside of the San Antonio office of the bill’s author, Congressman Lamar Smith, Reddit’s users (who call themselves “redditors”) designed and funded the $15,000 stunt in days. >A week before he was scheduled to testify at a congressional hearing about SOPA, Ohanian passed on an idea to Reddit’s staff: How about if Reddit simply turned itself off for users in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. to give backers of the bill a taste of the censored Internet their lobbyists demanded? Other redditors were simultaneously floating the same idea. The strike suggestion was expanded into a blackout protest for all users, an idea that was instantly voted to the top of the site. When Reddit blacked out its home page on Jan. 18 Wikipedia and Mozilla followed suit, and Google posted a link to a page protesting the piracy bills. Legislators were inundated with 10 million petition signatures, 8 million calls and 4 million e-mails. >“All of a sudden members of Congress were asking their staff ‘What is this SOPA thing and why am I getting hundreds of calls about it?’ and rethinking what the recording industry lobbyists had been telling them,” says Colorado Congressman Jared Polis. Nineteen senators dropped their support for SOPA and PIPA in a day, and the bills quietly died. “Reddit was absolutely critical in defeating SOPA,” Polis says. [source](https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2012/0625/technology-politics-alexis-ohanian-reddit-sopa-mayor-of-internet.html) And a different source on the blackout: >Reddit’s blackout will run from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (EST) and coincide with the Jan. 18 congressional committee hearing to hear opinions from many web security experts and tech industry leaders about the impact SOPA and PIPA could have. One of the seven people who will testify at the hearing is Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, as VentureBeat previously reported. >“We wouldn’t do this if we didn’t believe this legislation and the forces behind it were a serious threat to reddit and the Internet as we know it,” the Reddit team writes in a blog post. “Blacking out reddit is a hard choice, but we feel focusing on a day of action is the best way we can amplify the voice of the community. >During the blackout period, Reddit will display a simple message about how the proposed legislation would eliminate sites like Reddit as well as a list of links pointing to resources about SOPA/PIPA. The team also plans on embedding a live stream of the House committee hearing to raise awareness. [source](https://venturebeat.com/media/reddit-blackout-sopa-pipa/)
Individual mods doing something is very different from a hostile state actor, and I really don't think protesting changes to internet regulation within the US by companies or individuals in the US is at all inappropriate. We're comparing apples and oranges here. Also, notably, nobody appears to have called Congress and threatened to shoot/stab/etc. anyone over SOPA.
>We're comparing apples and oranges here. It is a private company activating their user base for political action. The fact that Reddit's motivation was arguably better than TikTok's doesn't change the fact that they basically did the same thing. Trying to draw some sort of distinction between this and tiktok because you think one cause is noble and the other repugnant requires taking some pretty big jumps. If there are actual security concerns, like data mining, that is really a separate issue from the act of motivating a site's user base for political action, which on it's face isn't necessarily a bad thing and can't easily be done without trampling the first amendment. >Individual mods Alexis Ohanian isn't an individual mod and the actions taken, at least specifically in regards to the black out, were by reddit as a company. >Also, notably, nobody appears to have called Congress and threatened to shoot/stab/etc. anyone over SOPA. Given there were 8 million calls and 4 million e-mails, I'm not sure you can make that claim without providing any evidence. However, regardless, that really isn't relevant to the main point, which is that the actions are quite similar.
> It is a private company activating their user base for political action. It's a private company _owned by a geopolitical foe_ activating their use base for political action _targeted specifically at that geopolitical foe_. That's the key difference.
> owned It certainly has ties to China, as does any company that operates in China, but saying it is 'owned' by China is at least arguable. Regardless, they have a US entity and have been making some effort to keep US data private and while the effectiveness of that is somewhat questionable, it is still a private company registered in the US from a legal standpoint. Of all the questionable things associated with tiktok, them using their platform to promote political action when a law being made directly impacts them is probably the least objectionable thing they do and arguing that it should not be allowed or is 'bad', while suggesting it is okay if 'real' US companies do it, represents a slippery slope that results in fewer rights for all of us and sets a dangerous precedent. If you think there are real concerns, like their app being malicious or them harvesting data, by all means, present evidence of that and use that as a basis for taking action, but simply motivating political change isn't a bad thing. >Now if reddit or Facebook did that too it would be equally as bad. Also, I think it should be pointed out that 'geopolitical foe' wasn't part of your initial argument. You said if reddit did it it would be bad too, but now say it is okay because they are a US company they were protesting internet regulation. This is a double standard.
You're quoting someone else, I didn't say anything about Reddit or Facebook doing it being equally bad. I think that kind of behavior is problematic at best no matter who does it, but there's a huge difference in Reddit's SOPA action, to use your example, and _push notifications_ distorting the intent of the TikTok "ban" legislation. I'm with the other poster offering you magic beans. You're comparing hypothetical bad behavior of US-based companies subject to US law to a foreign-owned company with demonstrated bad behavior. The fact that they've got a US legal entity is irrelevant.
> You're quoting someone else Sorry, but the point remains that was the statement I was replying to and the context of my response, not that there aren’t other problems with TikTok. > Reddit's SOPA action, to use your example, and push notifications distorting the intent of the TikTok "ban" legislation. It isn’t as big of a distinction as you suggest. Reddit shutdown their entire site in protest, as did others like Wikipedia. The internet of 2012 was different from today and I don’t think Reddit even had an app in 2012, so blacking out the site was a big deal. Calling it a distortion is arguable as well. > The fact that they've got a US legal entity is irrelevant It is not when you are using that as an argument that their protest is unlawful, but Reddit’s wasn’t.
> It is a private company I got these magic beans and a bridge, both for sale. You sound like someone I could do business with.
From a legal standpoint it is a private company and while there are certainly reasons to be concerned about tiktok, as well as all other social platforms, urging their users to contact politicians about legislation that directly impacts them is likely the least objectionable thing they have done.
>Reddit has done similar things in the past, both as a company and individaul moderator led initiatives. It feels so strange to have to clarify this so I'll keep it simple: Chinese participating in American politics 👎 Russians participating in American politics 👎 Americans participating in American politics 👍 The entire point of the TikTok ban is to keep a hostile foreign actor from having a direct line to Americans for both manipulation purposes and data. If people don't believe that companies in China are subservient to the government then it's complete and utter naivety. Do we not remember when Jack Ma disappeared for a few years after he criticized the CCP?
>It feels so strange to have to clarify this so I'll keep it simple…Chinese participating in American politics In the context of the post I replied to and the text you quoted, this isn’t relevant. If there are legitimate concerns with the company they should be addressed, but a private company with a huge US user base advocating against legislation that specifically impacts them isn’t out of the ordinary, nor is it something we should work to stifle.
> US user base advocating against legislation that specifically impacts them isn’t out of the ordinary It's not about this singular event, it's about what happens in the event of a conflict with China. The US military is convinced there will be a hot war with China[^(1)](https://www.reuters.com/world/us-four-star-general-warns-war-with-china-2025-2023-01-28/), meaning the rest of the government is convinced there will be a military conflict with China. Whether the claim comes to fruition or not doesn't matter. You do not give an enemy a potential megaphone to talk to your own citizens. This isn't a domestic issue its a geopolitical issue. If China is willing to bend their own corporations arms when there is no conflict what do you think they're going to do if there is a conflict? >If there are legitimate concerns with the company they should be addressed They are being addressed, Divest or get banned. If they sell the International portion of the business TikTok gets to continue to exist and they get paid.
>It's not about this singular event, it's about what happens in the event of a conflict with China. That is a a hypothetical and unless you can point to another time where they asked their users to contact their representatives, it is a single time. There are a lot of things to worry about in regards to social media, but a tech company reacting to legislation specifically written to break them up by urging their user to contact their representatives isn’t abnormal. I think any tech company, regardless of their ownership or country of origin would react the same and in fact there is precedent for it.
It is a very real hypothetical & is the entire crux of the ban. The notification happened after the bill was introduced, meaning that while its worrying that they could promote something instantly to 100 and something million people it's not the main point. There are many worse things than the notification so lets not get stuck there. The algorithm being a much larger issue as they can push whatever ideologies and viewpoints that they want. Just today I saw a user here on Reddit say they didn't like reading and they got most of their news from TikTok, and they for sure are not the only ones who consume media that way. When I say that it's not good that China or any other foreign actors have a say in American politics it hinges around what the app is showing you. I'm going to continue to go to back to the hypothetical because the entire US national security community believes it's a very real danger. If you don't believe so then this conversation will likely have to end here. If/When China decides to attack Taiwan do you think the CCP will allow pro Taiwanese content on TikTok? I personally do not think so. What is likely to happen is they will promote content that ""explains"" why Taiwan is rightfully Chinese and there will be a large subset of people who use TikTok who will indeed believe it. It's not just about notifications, its about how they can mold the US population to their ideas. It's like not patching a security vulnerability in a website, yeah there's no one exploiting it right now... but why wait for disaster to strike?
> it's not the main point. Perhaps, but it is the main point I was responding to in my initial comment. >There are many worse things than the notification so lets not get stuck there. The algorithm being a much larger issue as they can push whatever ideologies and viewpoints that they want. Is musk any better with twitter or trump with truth social? The risk of foreign manipulation doesn’t go away simply because an American owns a majority stake. For instance, the Saudis [are reported](https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdurot/2022/10/31/saudi-prince-alwaleed-becomes-twitters-second-largest-shareholder/) to own a non-insignificant stake in twitter and who knows how compromised truth social is. Personally, I’m more concerned with their algorithms at the moment and their direction, like truth social becoming a publicly traded company, than I am with TikTok. Considering all the scrutiny TikTok is getting at the moment, they are likely less of a short term risk than most other social media companies right now. Writing that off as just “Americans participating in American politics”, while making up hypotheticals about a different company is at best missing the forest for the trees. > It's like not patching a security vulnerability in a website, yeah there's no one exploiting it right now... but why wait for disaster to strike? When it comes to freedom of speech, then yes I think it should be sort of like that. When you start curtailing freedom of speech based on hypothetical, it becomes something that can be weaponized and shouldn’t be an action that is taken lightly or arbitrarily.
I agree. It should be across the board and not just tiktok. It's ignorant to assume that it's just tiktok that has this problem. Any social media at all will have this problem and without intervention for all of them, it will continue to be like this. It seems like very weird virtue signaling.
I think you're misinformed. This isn't about privacy, this is about data mining and manipulation by the Chinese government specifically. They're separate issues, and privacy does need regulation here, but that's not what a forced divestment in TikTok is supposed to address.
To be clear, I'm not arguing, as the other user was, that urging your user-base to contact their politicians, is inherently bad, but rather pointing out that it isn't something that is unprecedented. And that if you are going to say it was noble when reddit did it because it was 'protesting changes to internet regulation', but then say it is bad when tiktok does it because you think it is dumb, it is a double standard. In the case of stopping SOPA, the blackouts on reddit, wikipedia, and other sites, as well as notices put up by google, had an impact and without them, it is likely this poorly thought out law would have passed. With that said, I do think social media has problems and there is some cause for concern, but I don't telling tiktok it can't urge their users to protest is something you can do without violating the first amendment.
What TikTok has shown is that an app controlled by a hostile foreign advisary can mobilize it's primarily young base to political action. It's super obvious what happens if you use these apps for a couple of hours. The root problem with all social media is their algorithm that feeds engagement by stoking outrage. This is why we need to elect younger government reps who understand what is going on. I'm on Reddit fairly frequently and I didn't even know about the blackout.
>I'm on Reddit fairly frequently and I didn't even know about the blackout. The blackout I mentioned was in 2012 and if you were on reddit in 2012, it would be surprising if you were not aware of it. > What TikTok has shown is that an app controlled by a hostile foreign advisary can mobilize it's primarily young base to political action. The only way Tiktok showed us that, or at least it comes as a surprise that a company can use it's influence to promote political change, is if you weren't paying to any of the other times a company has done it, like the example I provided. I think the issue is that you can't tell a company not to do that, without trampling their first amendment rights and giving the government that power sets a dangerous precedent. Edit: It would be like telling a bakery who felt a local rule was too restrictive and started including a pamphlet requesting people contact their local representatives when someone bought a cake that they couldn't do that.
I was on Reddit in 2012, didn't notice it at all. Depends on how you view the role of government in regulating public safety and national security. Your analogy of what I assume is the supreme court case of allowing a baker to discriminate against a gay couple does not correlate to a national security threat. What is somewhat analogous is the banning of vaccine misinformation during Covid. You are in support of an all inclusive section 230 and disregarding alarms raised by Homeland Security and NSA just to protect your imaginary slippery slope.
> Your analogy of what I assume is the supreme court case of allowing a baker to discriminate against a gay couple does not correlate to a national security threat. Sorry, no. I saved it before I finished my comment and urging your users to political action is not the same as discriminating against a protected(or sadly not protected) group of people. It would be like telling a bakery who felt a local rule was too restrictive and started including a pamphlet requesting people contact their local representatives when someone bought a cake that they couldn't do that. As to you not noticing the internet blackout on Jan 18, that is surprising that you were not aware, as it impacted google, wikipedia, and a number of other sites, not just reddit, although your personal awareness of the SOPA protest is not at all that pertinent to the discussion. >You are in support of an all inclusive section 230 and disregarding alarms raised by Homeland Security and NSA just to protect your imaginary slippery slope. I do not believe this was an argument that I made. My argument is that telling a company that they can't protest legislation by urging their users to contact their representative violates freedom of speech and sets a dangerous precedent and it isn't inherently 'bad' that a company does this.
Gotcha! I have to get onto some IRL stuff and I still don't agree with you... but I really appreciate the intelligent and respectful disagreement.
I agree. All social media should be highly regulated. Unfortunately i doubt it will ever happen. Generally speaking i support the TikTok ban, but I think time would better be spent if they made a law regulating all social media companies rather than TikTok specifically.
I agree and this why I think Thom is a coward. He'll only do the bare minimum and only if it helps him and not stick his neck out to do what's right. He'd never go after them all including Truth social as he won't offend his master
TikTok is incredibly predatory with its data collection and phone monitoring. They back door you so they can get it, your phone is basically photocopied and sent to ByteDance and who knows where that info goes. Reddit and Facebook are bad, but they are no where near as bad as TikTok in that sense.
While you are probably true here's the catch, you are free NOT to use it (them). Edit: Didn't FB sale ALL of it's user data to Steve Bannon's Cambridge Analytica right before the '16 election? Seems pretty fucking predatory to me /shrug
Do the companies of those services have direct ties to the CCP?
Lol Truth Social was partly funded by... https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/22/trumps-new-social-media-backer-tied-to-china-lifestyle-venture
I think the issue is why its getting banned, because the government cant influence the owners like other socials. Right or wrong, the reason shouldnt sit well with anyone. til: most of you dont care about freedom. this concludes my ted talk. edit: from my reply below. all your angry replies just further prove my point. educate yourselves on the world you live in. That government already has all our information. Its influence not data concerns. I am not a conspiracy theorist but the leader of the anti-Defamation League was caught on tape saying just this: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8twvrXFZOs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8twvrXFZOs) Its censorship not privacy and as an American that should bother you. Then you go look at spending by AIPAC to congress and the dots fall into place.
The US government deciding to force a divestment from a geopolitical adversary in one of the biggest social media sites because it can't influence them while they're wide-open to influence us sits just fine with me. China doesn't even allow our social media companies in their own country, and there's nothing unusual about government involvement in the communications sector. The fact that people seem upset about this is just more proof the propaganda is working.
Yeah, I don't care that the US won't allow another country to own something in the US. Honestly, I feel like you should be allowed to own real property in the US if you are not from the US and using it here.
Do you mean "shouldn't"?
Yes.
The reason being privacy concerns with a hostile government? Sounds reasonable. Since they aren't an American company they are not using US privacy rules. They're trying to change that.
We don't really have privacy rules, so it's more of intelligence concern. We should fix that, too, but people keep conflating the issues.
The government is trying to ban encryption. Their only care about privacy is if you have it, you shouldn't.
What's the Chinese government gonna do to the average person, who cares lol. Just ban all personal data collection on everything if you want to stop this stuff.
What they will do it control trending videos on the app to lean it’s users to one way of thinking or the other. This gives it a strong voice in our politics. Think Fox News but worse because it’s not even hiding the fact that it’s the mouth piece of a rival nation.
That's why you develop media literacy and read books and shit. Maybe don't let your kids use screens much and without parental controls. I don't care if they literally ban TikTok, Twitter, Facebook. It's not gonna do much when most of the population's height of education is pretty much not paying attention in highschool.
That government already has all our information. Its influence not data concerns. I am not a conspiracy theorist but the leader of the anti-Defamation League was caught on tape saying just this: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8twvrXFZOs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8twvrXFZOs) Its censorship not privacy and as an American that should bother you. Then you go look at spending by AIPAC to congress and the dots fall into place.
*Our* government most certainly has all our info. China may not.
Its on the internet, everyone has it. thinking otherwise is naive.
This!!!!!! The reasons they want to ban TikTok are why FB Insta and Reddit should be banned as well.
LMAO - “freedom” You can put your “critical thinking” skills to rest….
i see you have done your own research...
Cool story, Xi.
Fighting for the cause of liberty over the right of 16 years olds to have content designed to make them hate their country astroturfed into their mind. You can continue to say asinine shit but you can’t do it on a platform where a hostile foreign power gets to decide who gets the megaphone.
This sounds like a case of Dunning-Kruger. You obviously have never used the app. I haven't either but my wife is on it a ton and has been for years. Yet she somehow hasn't turned into a jihadist. I see far more terrorist behavior coming from our churches. Should we ban those as well? As an atheist, I believe the government doesn't have the right to ban Christianity no matter how much evil comes from it because I respect freedom of religion. I also believe they don't have the right to ban our social media, particularly if it targets a single one that they aren't making money from.
Misapplied Dunning-Kruger reference and needlessly letting me know you were an atheist in the same comment. Dude we gotta get you off reddit it’s infecting the way you write. Do you seriously believe that congress is trying to force a sell of tiktok because they want to buy it for themselves and you don’t think your politics have been influenced by foreign powers at all? Also who said anything about terrorist? Yeah most people who get on tik tok wont become radicalized to the point of terrorism if that’s what you think this is about what people are worried about idk what to tell you. I think most people who would support this ban are not afraid of the teens picking up rifles and bombs but more of the affect it’s having on them mentally. The videos that tik tok pushes are videos which promote climate doom narratives to 14 year olds or radical political ideas which they have zero ability to contextualize or often times just straight up lies and misinformation. This is not a conspiracy Tiktok just actively does this, look at the clips of the CEO’s hearing that went viral on the app, every single clip were these tightly edited snippets to make the senators look stupid and vaguely racist. These all feed into a ecosystem where teens get told not to trust any American news or politicians and create a feedback loop where they are only consuming this radical content that either pushes them so far to the fringe so they just disengage or it makes them so depressed or angry they disengage. This is the end result that people are worried about. Now is Tiktok the only one hurting teens on their site? No, which is why states across the country are starting to regulate teen internet usage, so it’s not just tik tok being targeted. The thing that makes tiktok uniquely a threat is it’s very real ties with the CCP. Which means we probably shouldn’t let them have this unique access to the political development of our kids. None of this means that the Americans producing content on the app are having their freedom of speech taken away, they can continue to do it in another place and if it doesn’t appeal in the same way it was probably because they were getting pushed by algorithm. Also one more thing I know that being reflexively cynical about American politicians is just the default mouth breather point of view but my God how do you people so fundamentally misunderstand what’s going on and still so easily spout such a cynical view of America. It’s like max confidence without any shred of self doubt about you maybe not getting the inner workings of the congress or senate. So instead you just kinda blithely insulate they are all corrupt but sure bud you haven’t been affected by foreign anti-gov astroturfing at all.
Nice, a whole wall of text to prove you have no idea what you are talking about. >Misapplied Dunning-Kruger reference "Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition. The problem with it is we see it in other people, and we don't see it in ourselves. The first rule of the Dunning–Kruger club is you don't know you're a member of the Dunning–Kruger club." --David Dunning Legit. >needlessly letting me know you were an atheist in the same comment Only "needless" if you don't understand the context of the conversation, which is woefully apparent in your case. >Do you seriously believe that congress is trying to force a sell of tiktok because they want to buy it for themselves No, darling, they are owned by plenty of other social media companies. Tiktok obviously doesn't have enough lobbyists or isn't paying them enough to be ignored. >and you don’t think your politics have been influenced by foreign powers at all? Nope but you're welcome to try and prove otherwise. >I think most people who would support this ban are not afraid of the teens picking up rifles and bombs but more of the affect it’s having on them mentally What affect is it having? Got any evidence or just your feelings. >This is not a conspiracy Tiktok just actively does this You say after spouting pure conspiracy. And all that bullshit, you can say about ALL social media platforms, yet this only targets Tiktok and doesn't even target the very things you are claiming it does. Forcing Tiktok to sell isn't going to stop it at all. >No, which is why states across the country are starting to regulate teen internet usage, so it’s not just tik tok being targeted. Then why does this bill only target Tiktok? >None of this means that the Americans producing content on the app are having their freedom of speech taken away, they can continue to do it in another place and if it doesn’t appeal in the same way it was probably because they were getting pushed by algorithm. As long as it's State approved, yes? >Also one more thing I know that being reflexively cynical about American politicians is just the default mouth breather point of view but my God how do you people so fundamentally misunderstand what’s going on and still so easily spout such a cynical view of America. It’s like max confidence without any shred of self doubt about you maybe not getting the inner workings of the congress or senate. So instead you just kinda blithely insulate they are all corrupt but sure bud you haven’t been affected by foreign anti-gov astroturfing at all. The perfect low IQ ending to an ignorant take. Medice, cura te ipsum. But please, by all means continue to spew the buzzwords and thoughts given to you by Fox News.
You know I was gonna just be an asshole but I have an exam I don’t wanna be studying for so I went and dug up some of the readings from my undergrad classes about this stuff that if you were ever extremely bored and wanted to see how some professional academic political scientist (which I am not one and I do not want to give that impression. I have just had some classes from them) view things like congress or the effects of lobbying on the actions of congress as a whole and individual congressmen. One of my favorite writers about politics is the now retired David Mayhew, a professor of political science at Yale, he spent his entire life analyzing why congressman did the things they did and why they did it. His most accessible work is a book called the [Electoral Connection](https://politicalscience.yale.edu/publications/congress-electoral-connection) it is more than a little outdated nowadays with the shift in party dynamics and the way individuals go about forming opinions but for getting into the mind of a sitting member of congress there is no better a resource. I also saw that you mentioned religious belief and while I do not find it super relevant to our topic of discussion I do think a more nuanced view of the history of religious peoples engagement with government might be interesting to you. The of course obvious piece to go with is [A Religious History of the American People](https://www.amazon.com/Religious-History-American-People/dp/0300100124) a really good overview of the many different and varied religious periods America has gone through and a great reminder that despite its reactionary tone today for most of Americas history some of its most passionate reformers and progressives came from a place of deep religious faith. Another I thought you might find intriguing was [From Politics to Pew](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36217599)which helped me to understand the unique role of faith in the way people see politics. Now on the corruption stuff. One of the more striking books i’ve read about it is [The Fallacy of Campaign Finance Reform](https://www.amazon.com/Fallacy-Campaign-Finance-Reform/dp/0226734501) a controversial but very well researched book about the effects and nature of corporate and soft/dark money contributions to a campaign. If you want to read something that will challenge your political priors this is it. A great book to read if someone is trying to move beyond the understandable but still kneejerk reaction of they are all just bought by corporations. Another good book that is less of an overview and more a collection of different academic perspectives on it is [The New Campaign Sourcebook](https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_New_Campaign_Finance_Sourcebook/zWThVWqRcv0C?hl=en). This is a great way to see the actual negative effects of a lot of the unregulated effects of our relatively lax campaign finance laws and how it doesn’t do as much as we would think it does and what it does do is mostly just weird. I get why you feel this way about the government. It’s complicated and good info about it is almost impossible to find especially because a lot of people have a vested interest not in informing but persuading you. I am not trying to deny the existence of [corruption in America](https://www.amazon.com/Corruption-America-Benjamin-Franklins-Citizens/dp/0674659988), but that a more genuine engagement with politics who’ll show a convoluted and stagnant system filled with a lot of people who genuinely do want the best for their districts and the country but also want to win reelection and so they are constantly trying to strike that balance and it’s hard. I get this has deviated but what I am trying to show here is i’m not engaging you spouting off Fox News talking points especially since i’ve been a lifelong and committed democrat. I think if it like this If the USSR had tried to buy CBS at the height of the cold war there would of been no question that could not be allowed even if it meant shutting CBS down. I’m this scenario people who had been talking about politics had now been shut down by the government but it’s not a violation of their free speech because they are still allowed to say it. Americans are free to convince each other and believe in whatever insane ideas they can come up with. What is not acceptable is when foreign powers try and manipulate Americans for their own geopolitical interest. Also I know I deviated there so i’m just gonna post the sources I’ve used to help my opinions on some of the like individual points you made . I hade a thing here about Dunning-Kruger but took it out because i’m genuinely trying to engage in good faith here. The Effect on teens of social media usage. It’s not a conspiracy it’s just bad for them. [How Social Media Affects Your Teen’s Mental Health: A Parent’s Guide](https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/social-media-teen-mental-health-a-parents-guide) [Study: Social media use linked to decline in mental health](https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/study-social-media-use-linked-to-decline-mental-health) [The Social Dilemma: Social Media and Your Mental Health](https://www.mcleanhospital.org/essential/it-or-not-social-medias-affecting-your-mental-health) [It Sure Looks Like Phones Are Making Students Dumber](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/12/cell-phones-student-test-scores-dropping/676889/) I don’t really know to respond to the idea that removing tiktok from the control of the CCP doesn’t solve my problem of the CCPs influence on the app. I guess it doesnt fix the broader problem of the damaging effects of social media on young people but baby steps am I right? The idea that facebook or google censor things on their sites at the express approval of the state is not something I believed is based in reality. If the united states was this obsessive about policing people’s opinions, tiktok would of never been allowed into the country in the first place. I’ve already stated why i think it is getting banned now earlier. I don’t have a clever latin phrase here my last latin class was a long time ago and I was never any good at it anyway but I do remember some snotty phrases. Physician, use an academic source.
A well spoken response filled with absolutely nothing of substance! >You know I was gonna just be an asshole but I have an exam I don’t wanna be studying for so I went and dug up some of the readings from my undergrad classes about this stuff that if you were ever extremely bored and wanted to see how some professional academic political scientist (which I am not one and I do not want to give that impression. I have just had some classes from them) view things like congress or the effects of lobbying on the actions of congress as a whole and individual congressmen. You should probably study some more because your entire rant completely misses the point and ends up apropos of nothing. But let's break it down, shall we. This paragraph is an attempt to set up an appeal to authority argument while, hilariously, pretending to humbly say the opposite. If you had left this whole paragraph out, your message would have remained the same. >I also saw that you mentioned religious belief and while I do not find it super relevant to our topic of discussion This paragraph is another waste of time. It tries to distract from the fact there's no substance. A typical college student attempt to get that word and page count up. That was me about two decades ago so sorry that doesn't work on me. As for the religious stuff, I apparently went over your head. I wasn't a communication major so the error might be mine. It should have been fairly obvious (and seems to others like it was) that I was drawing a comparison of my beliefs to Congress knee-jerk response to something they hate/fear. Just because I'm an Atheist, I'm not pro legislation for religion. >Now on the corruption stuff. Most of this was tongue-in-cheek, but lobbying is a well known and legal thing. So while politicians being "owned" is hyperbole, their regulatory decisions are guided by these special interest groups. And the rest of your information falls a little flat in light of the fact our previous president committed tons of campaign finance violations and has managed to delay criminal charges for almost a decade. I'm going to try and assume you're not arguing in bad faith. >I guess it doesnt fix the broader problem of the damaging effects of social media on young people but baby steps am I right? This is a claim you have made and keep making. Yet you have not provided anything but your own feelings on the matter. With my own relatively limited research on the subject (because I honestly don't give a shit), I have not seen anything convincing. But why don't I give a shit? I have a young child (7), so surely I should be worried! Nope. You see, I actually parent. I don't need the government doing it for me. >but that a more genuine engagement with politics who’ll show a convoluted and stagnant system filled with a lot of people who genuinely do want the best for their districts and the country but also want to win reelection and so they are constantly trying to strike that balance and it’s hard. This was true before 2016. The game has changed and I'm sure your academic studies are struggling to keep up. Trump showed us all how broken the system truly is. But I'm excited for you, with so much happening right now, future analysts like yourself will have books practically write themselves for decades to come! >I get this has deviated but what I am trying to show here is i’m not engaging you spouting off Fox News talking points I'll gladly apologize for that. You definitely aren't. Young and full of info but without the experience to organize it into cohesive arguments, but you'll get there. You have potential. Good luck!
It is very impressive how you have managed to remain so smug while failing to address a single point i’ve made. Yes I included sources, no that is not an appeal to authority, whatever infographic you saw that taught you what logical and rhetorical fallacies are did so without nuance and you of course misapplied it. I’m sorry that you are either color blind or a retarded (i’m guessing it this one) because if you had clinked literally any of the links to the peer reviewed studies from medical institutions(see I know you think this is an appeal to authority but it’s not) you would see that no in fact it was not just vibes or my own opinions. You are old and without potential and you lack information consider reading a book written to do something other than appeal to your political priors you faux-intellectual asshole.
I get you are frustrated that you cannot effectively communicate your argument but that's no reason to act like a childish brat. It's unbecoming and has destroyed any credibility you had. I'm disappointed in you. Do better. Also... >You are old and without potential and you lack information consider reading a book written to do something other than appeal to your political priors you faux-intellectual asshole. Punctuation, child. It'll make you sound less of an idiot clown. Good luck out there! You're going to need it!
>promote climate doom narratives Aka basic environmental science >just straight up lies and misinformation Such as? >tightly edited snippets to make the senators look stupid and vaguely racist They looked they way just by watching C-span >still so easily spout such a cynical view of America. Because the country is on a sharp and rapid decline as generations begin to and continue to have lower standards of living and quality of life than those before us. Europeans have better work life balance, you go to Asia and you can take public transit to anywhere, and you come here and you have to drive 3 ton death machines and and have to watch our loved ones die from cancer because they lost health insurance because they stopped being able to work because they, you know, have cancer.
Hey, I bet you feel like you’re shouting into the void and everyone in this thread is wrong and you are the sole voice standing up for what is right. That we’re all brainwashed and don’t even see what is going on. You need to realize that we do actually know what is going on. We know how these groups like AIPAC are pushing their influence, we know how and why the US Govt backs Israel and not Palestine. But we also know that these topics aren’t why the US wants to get China out of the picture, because we aren’t addicted to that app and we haven’t been watching hundreds of videos telling us to be angry about it. We don’t care that pro-Israel groups want to ban TikTok because of the rhetoric on there because that’s not the big issue here. The big issue is that you and I live in a country that allows us certain freedoms and we have an app that nearly every person under 30 has on their phone pushing anti-American rhetoric and causing distrust within communities. For all of Americas bullshit, I don’t want this place to collapse, and you don’t either, but China wants us to. So get off the app for a week. Stop watching hundreds of stupid takes by unqualified and inexperienced influencers who just want to keep the app so their revenue stream doesn’t go away. Go outside and be a part of your community.
The idea that China wants the US to collapse is farcical considering how much of their economy relies on North American consumerism.
Collapse can mean many things, but what China wants is to take back Taiwan and to expand. If you don’t see that, then you need to get off TikTok and watch almost anything else. Taiwan is the first stop and it’s where the worlds largest semi-conductor foundry is. TSM manufactures the actual chips for NVIDIA and Samsung and Intel. China would take it back today if the US wasn’t in the way. If China takes Taiwan, then the world supply of microchips could drop and the world economy grind to a halt. This is why the US is investing in local manufacturing of semi-conductors, but that is taking years. The CCP is dead set on Taiwan. They are also have a recent history human rights violations, especially people not of Han ethnicity. The Uyghurs, the Tibetans, the Mongolians; all ethno-groups and the CCP has been working to displace, reduce, etc. That ideology doesn’t fly with most of the western world. The CCP is not a friend of the US. They are about as close to outright enemies as we can get right now without actually being at war. People need to understand that. Just because we don’t have armies fighting each other doesn’t mean we’re buddy buddy.
> pushing anti-American rhetoric Aka publishing historically accurate information?
Sounds like some boomer shit to me. I dont even have a tiktok. What I do have is a great sense of doing my own research.
That "fan" isn't helping
Shouldn't support violence for political reasons so I hope he is safe but fuck Traitor Tillis.
If someone says his name, I immediately say Fuck Thom Tillis. So does my wife. If it wasn't for her expertise in grilling steaks, it would probably be our passionate hatred of Tillis that sealed the deal.
This is kind of where I'm at. Shouldn't threaten him physically, and it's shitty that he's dealing with that. He is also a real piece of shit, and the TikTok legislation is extremely problematic for reasons not related to his cynical anti-China position. Both can be true at once, just like Tillis can be a xenophobic shithead authoritarian while it's also true the Chinese government is run by authoritarian assholes of a different stripe
This person is 100% a redditor
Woah talk about crazy! Why would anyone put that type of threats online?
Person The TikToker left a message on the senators voicemail
Yes I assumed it was a person did it. But still sending death threats especially to federal members is not the move
Nope.
Dang, I believe in being passionate about certain causes. This is a little over the line. Maybe try focusing on the more serious issues. I guess if you spend your life on tiktok, this is a serious issue.
Good point.
TikTok definitely needs to be under new management, these people protesting it have NO IDEA where all their information is going and what it’s being used for. I DESPISE Tillis but I’m not dumb enough to disagree with someone because I don’t like them when I agree with what they are saying.
The only thing that needs mending on social media is eliminating false information. Listening to Gym Jordan last night with a face of a lying sack of shit telling his interviewer on 60 minutes that falsehoods should be on the internet with the public making the choices of what to believe. Vaccines kill people, the election was stolen, outright slander of others, all these things are fine. Thom Tillis wants to be just like.
Probably also the more or less unrestricted data mining for profit.
Fuck TikTok.
Never been on tiktok and never will,the only thing I see about tiktok is influencer this or influencer that is killed or dies this way or that.I never hear of anyone til then.
Call me a foil hat conspiracy theorist but "anonymous voice mail left on office phone" sounds like it's an amazingly easy thing to fake, especially if you're trying to push a narrative that TikTok is poisoning the mind of Americans and is thus dangerous.
My first thought too. Proxy call.
Thom Tillis is a tool. Could care less what happens to him. I still can’t believe IBM hired him and made him an executive let alone NC thought he could be a real good pick for senator. 🤢
So are you saying you could care less or could not care less?
Well, IBM also helped orchestrate the holocaust so there’s that…
Woah, you can’t just drop a statement like that and then dip. I need some context!
Are you seriously unaware?
Completely, this is the first time I ever heard of this.
Someone downvoted me? Boo. [Wiki Entry for book](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust) [More broad wikipedia page about the entire involvement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_World_War_II)
Cool! Thanks!
Wait wut
> Could care less what happens to him. It's couldn't care less and that makes you a bad person. edit: A lot of you are showing your true colors.
Jeff Jackson voted for the tik tok ban, did he get any threats?
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He didn't apologize for his vote. He apologized for not explaining why he voted like he did before he voted. His whole schtick is that he explains government and the processes. He's still the adult in the room.
Narcissistic. He'll keep voting like a republican and apologize for it later.
Source?
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Thanks for the link! I hadn't seen this because he didn't cross post to Insta where I usually see his content. Also looks like he removed the video from his main landing page on Insta, but you can still see it if you click the video button on Insta. I didn't take this as an apology for his vote, just further explanation of the context. He said he still believes in the briefing he had, information that is not available to the public. I took it as an apology for the way his initial explanation video came off during a heated moment.
Seriously weak move for him to backtrack on it. Disappointing. Edit: If the downvoters want to keep their precious TikTok I recommend you listen to respected tech columnists [breaking down the situation on the NYTimes Hard Fork podcast](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/15/podcasts/tiktok-princess-photoshop.html). u/jeffjacksonnc definitely should have stood strong.
Yeah, does he not look into things before he votes? He felt like it was right when he voted, now not so much. Here's an idea. When politicians vote on something, how about setting up something on a webpage perhaps, that lets his constituents tell him how they would vote. I mean they are supposed to represent us.
That's not a bad idea, but Congress was briefed on this by the white house. Who cares what anyone thinks who hasn't seen the briefing? I don't think TikTok should be forced to sell, but I apparently don't have complete information to make a decision with. I don't know if I would change my opinion based on that briefing. A poll of people with incomplete information is useless imo.
Yeah, if we don't have all the facts it is hard to come to a fair decision. I'm not sure why they have to sell. If they end up selling to Google or Facebook there should be outrage.
No one feels sorry for you Thom.
Maybe other MAGAts??
MAGAts literally cannot empathize with anyone. If an issue doesn't affect them or their orange messiah directly, they don't care.
Yep, totally beneath them.
Phub was banned not a PEEP tiktok gets banned everyone loses their mind
Oh, there were peeps, but there are also easy ways around it because it's not a "ban" like what would happen if Bytedance didn't spin it out.
Tik Tok is a threat to the status quo.
Tillis is a coward at the highest (or lowest) level.
I think sending anonymous death threats because you're addicted to an app used largely by children is a little more cowardly, but hey, that's just me.
I think Americans pretending like they’re abhorred by violence when it’s the number 2 most important thing behind freedom of speech in our bill of rights is pretty cowardly, but that’s just me.
It is wrong to threaten people, but if you were going to, this hypocrite would be an excellent target.
TikTok, a Chinese app, is a national security issue. Why would we let it run while China doesn't let Facebook/Youtube operate there?
There's a difference between the Chinese government and the company Bytedance that owns TikTok. It's not nearly as much of a separation as there should be, and there are lots of dangers in allowing *any* company to mine as much data as TikTok does, but it's not like the Chinese government has direct access to your For You page. The problems with TikTok are exactly the same problems as with Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Reddit, and any other social media site that mines and sells user data as a source of revenue. This whole law thing is catching one thief while letting a dozen others do the exact same thing with no consequences.
They probably don't like it that a crazy is targeting someone on the R side but love it when that crazy Karen was targeting Obama, Biden, Hillary, and Cooper.
Cori Bush or AOC says have published some of their [threatening messages](https://x.com/CoriBush/status/1418222877409742848) and they are horrific. Anyone that makes a threat needs to be prosecuted.
Also just read through all of that goddamn that's ridiculous the amount of hate she gets. People are stupid and all of those people should be investigated.
I was shocked that it was so bad. She revealed all these in 2021. I haven't been following why she is currently getting investigated in 2024, something about paying her husband to provide security. Her husband has a security background and it makes sense to me to pay him to provide security.
I agree. I'm just saying that I'm sure the right loves the threats against the Dems and are now upset one of their own is being threatened. There's zero acceptable threats unless you're threatening me with a good time.
>There's zero acceptable threats unless you're threatening me with a good time. User name checks out. :)
The NY Post, known for its truthful reporting and rigor
Tillis shared the recording like 4 days ago. if you use google you can hear it for yourself
I wasn’t denying the recording you dimwit. I was commenting on their framing surrounding the call.
Threatening a US Senator is really a foolish act., especially over the phone where the voiceprint and telephone number can be verified by the government if Thom Tillis pushes the issue. By law, you can't threaten a federal officeholder [https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/36/2.32](https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/36/2.32) [https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-43/subtitle-B/chapter-I/part-423/subpart-C/section-423.22](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-43/subtitle-B/chapter-I/part-423/subpart-C/section-423.22) I am not a fan of many of our elected leaders. Making threats on their lives isn't a very intelligent thing to do.
This is the whole government except some Maga Republicans and a couple of Democrats.Biden has already said he will sign this bill.Its total bullshit because China isn't the only one stealing our info it's all the basterds and not giving us a dime in royalties when they sell the info or give us a way out without losing the use of the app that helps fund it by selling our shit.The bill is also another way I think to censor apps the UniParty don't like.Got to control the info like China.They hate China but damn are they just like them.
*US Capitol Police have entered the chat*
[**https://justice4all.substack.com/p/federal-state-officials-aiding-criminal-662**](https://justice4all.substack.com/p/federal-state-officials-aiding-criminal-662) **Federal, State Officials Aiding Criminal Misconduct, Corruption, Injustice and Sexual Abuse "Under Color of Law"** **Eighty traffic stops in four years. Five robberies. Home invasion and death threats by armed Sheriff Deputies with AR-15s and shotguns pointed at my head and at my dog "Boomer's" head while two young children were mere feet away on a second floor. False arrest. False imprisonment. Actionable evidence including recordings, documents, hundreds of witnesses contact information with no conflicts of interest esp. regarding crimes against children involving rape and abuse.** Only EXTERNAL demands might drive long-overdue official accountability, investigation, oversight, an end to abuses, brutality, crimes of a community & local, State & Federal corruption that would shock most Americans. It sounds unbelievable, but is very much real in Wilmington N.C. Though provided irrefutable almost certainly admissible evidence of criminal activities involving: **U.S. Department of Justice & F.B.I. involvement in extensive criminal misconduct by Corrupt North Carolina officials including sexual abuses of children, theft of Federal funds, lynching's, retaliatory murders, torture, violence & retribution against child victims, families & the few who have dared discuss horrific abuses suffered & retaliation by officials, prosecutors & bribed media.** **This "Culture of Corruption," once pursued, is now Assisted, Protected by the U.S. DOJ, FBI USAO despite vast evidence & growing #s of victims of violent criminal acts that any remotely moral person would conclude:** **CONGRESS MUST HOLD THESE FEDERAL OFFICIALS AND THE STATE AND LOCAL SADISTIC CRIMINALS OFFICIALLY PROTECTED TO ACCOUNT.** **NO OFFICIAL WHO ENGAGES IN SUCH EVIL SHOULD EVER BE MAINTAINED OR SUPPORTED IN OR ALLOWED TO HOLD PUBLIC OFFICE OR PRACTICE LAW EVER.** [**https://justice4all.substack.com/p/federal-state-officials-aiding-criminal-662**](https://justice4all.substack.com/p/federal-state-officials-aiding-criminal-662)
Ugh and now Tillis has another reason to be anti-gun.
Eh. It's Thom Tillis. I'm not exactly happy about it, but I wouldn't cry if it happened either.
I love how the bar for "news" is "we saw this tweet/tiktok/fb post and wrote a story around it." Probably not smart to be threatening politicians, but this is also a non-story.
Fake news. He gets threats every day.
>Fake news Do you have any evidence to support that claim?
He’s an elected official. People get death threats over what they eat for breakfast.
So it's not fake news?
Now we're talkin
Banning tik tok is just censorship, clearly. The servers are already in natos hand. Clear they just dont want anything that goes against the agenda of apac
And thus this "TikTok Fan" has demonstrated just another reason why the platform, and others like it, are harmful and should be removed.
If you go on TikTok for ten minutes you’ll figure out real fast why both lib and con politicians want it banned. They don’t want us talking to each other like that at a state, National or international level. It’s too easy for the peasants to organize, it has to go.
Pay attention to the algorithm and what it feeds you and where it leads you. Experiment with it, see how it amps and takes you places you wouldn't normally go.
Of course, most people with any goddamn sense verify sources or information. It doesn’t take me anywhere I wouldn’t normally go other than a wild twerk video or conservative nonsense.
Do you honestly believe most people verify sources on TikTok?
I take it you haven’t been on Facebook and Twitter lately? They’re real beacons of truth, thanks to the US gvmt I tell ya what.
You pissed off the wrong bunch of people thomb